HELENA — While we’re still a few months away from the start of hockey season, perhaps the biggest way for fans of the Helena Bighorns to support their team starts right now.
The Bighorns are seeking new billet families for the upcoming season. Billet families provide housing, food and more to support Bighorns players who skated far away from home to chase their hockey dreams.
“It is the ultimate way to support the team,” 13-year billet parent Jacqui Sedivy told MTN Sports while sitting at her kitchen table. “It really, really is. If it wasn’t for a billet family, they couldn’t have the team that they have. Billet families contribute a lot.”
Sedivy said she has hosted about 10 players during her 13 years of billeting — and up to three at once. She also said that she stays in contact with each of them.
“They never quite leave you as a person,” said Sedivy. “They become just part of your family. And then their family becomes part of your family. So, you just start expanding all over the show. You know, that truly is a joy of being a billet family.”
The first thing one might notice after walking through the Sedivys' front door is a sign that reads “Home Sweet Home” perched above a rack of Bighorns jerseys — poetically symbolic of the bonds formed between billet families and the players they host.
“I think it is the emotions,” said Sedivy. “You become part of that human’s life, and they become part of yours. And in the beginning you’re apprehensive. You don’t know who you’re getting. You just get a text and it says, ‘Hey, this kid is arriving on this day.’ There’s nothing more than that.
“They kind of give you a little bit about the person. And then all of a sudden you have potentially between a 15- to 18-year-old in your house. So, now you got to learn. You start growing with that person.”
And it’s because of all that learning and growing that makes the eventual goodbyes so much harder. But the memories — they last forever.
“We just wanted to give him something to remember his two years on junior hockey here in Helena,” Sedivy said while unraveling a poster meant for her most-recent hostee. “And this is just a little something, a collage we put together, of all the different things we did. And pictures with his family, our family, we just kind of blended so well together both families.”
For those interested in billeting, you can find more information on the Bighorns website.
